Salvage

Amazon.com
Salvage lives up to its title in many ways, since it sounds like a hodgepodge of ideas, sketches, and influences that producer and composer Tom Green has salvaged into an album. The second effort from Green, Salvage dials into an African-techno sound pioneered most recently by Afro Celt Sound System. Using the African kalimba or thumb piano as the basis for many pieces, Green sets up hypnotic, slo-mo tribal grooves. His work with both the Orb and Baka Beyond emerges, as well as the seminal influence of Brian Eno and Harold Budd. He borrows their ambient atmospheres on "Lost in Space" and brings jazz piano stylings to a funky groove called "Twisted Standards." Green creates some curious juxtapositions, like inserting the familiar "Scarborough Faire" into a trance groove on the opening track and making a traditional Shona piece sound like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Unfortunately, a lot of Salvage sounds like backgrounds looking for a theme, a pleasant assemblage of sonic bric-a-brac, with a destination that's diffuse. --John Diliberto

Salvage,Another Fine Day,Climate Records,Alternative Pop/Rock,Club/Dance,Dance,Dance Music,Ethnic Fusion,Pop,Techno-Tribal

Average customer rating:

Live at the Freight and Salvage Hot Buttered Rum String Band Manufacturer: Hot Buttered Rum String Band ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Similar Items: Well-Oiled Machine In These Parts Elko Elevation Bottom Half ASIN: B000CAEC34 Release Date: 2005-11-29

Tracks:

1. Backrooms of My Mind
2. Elephant Hunting Song
3. Red-Haired Boy
4. String's Breath
5. Trial of John Walker Lindh
6. Norwegian Wood
7. Warm Up
8. Naked Blue
9. Red Clay Halo
10. Crest
11. Dolphin
12. I Saw the Light

Average customer rating: This should be heard

Upstate Songs Manufacturer: City Salvage ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Folk | Styles | Music Similar Items: Songs for Devon Sproule Keep Your Silver Shined ASIN: B000CAGHY6 Release Date: 2003-06-17

Tracks:

1. Plea for a Good Night's Rest
2. Come Comet or Dove
3. Farewell, Seasick Suffering!
4. Tristan and Isolde
5. Should Have Been Snow
6. You Aren't Really Here, It Isn't Really Light Out
7. White Kite at Georgetown Green
8. My Baby Just Cares for Me
9. Last Summer's Lifeguard
10. Country Sun

Customer Reviews:

This should be heard.......2006-08-10

I just bought this recently; I had heard Devon's husband Paul Curreri live a couple years ago, and was impressed enough to pick up his album "Songs for Devon Sproule." I eventually discovered that Devon Sproule was a singer/songwriter, too, through Jeffrey Foucault's website (Jeffrey's a favorite of mine). I finally got around to reading some glowing reviews of this album (who doesn't have glowing reviews of their album posted somewhere online?), and may have written it off, except that I saw that Rolling Stone listed this as one of the best albums of 2003. I figured it was worth a chance. What a surprise. It's one of those rare albums that wears lots of influences on its sleeve but still manages to sound unique and fresh and original. It has a very pure and innocent quality to it. The best comparison that comes to mind is Gillian Welch, but it's sweeter and prettier. Every song just works on it's own, and after a few cuts, the whole album takes on a glow -- I started to feel grateful to be hearing music that sounded so perfectly conceived and performed. It's not a great masterpiece (at least not yet), but there's a minor miracle in these songs that should be heard.

Average customer rating: A very different and rewarding Elgar concerto

Elgar: Falstaff; Cello Concerto; Romance for Bassoon; Smoking Cantata Manufacturer: Asv Living Era ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Elgar | Elgar, Sir Edward | ( E ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Tone Poems | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Bassoon | Reeds & Winds | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music Cello | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music Cantatas | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Cantatas | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music Similar Items: Elgar the Music Maker ASIN: B0001EMM3S Release Date: 2004-04-27

Tracks:

1. The First Movement
2. The Second Movement
3. Falstaff And The Prince In The Boar's Head, Eastcheap, Jesting With The Landlady And Carrying Out A Robbery At Gadshill
4. Falstaff Falls Asleep
5. The First Interlude
6. Part 3
7. West Country
8. The Second Interlude
9. Part 4
10. Falstaff Hurries To London For The Pomp and Circumstance Of The Coronation, But The New King Brutally Rejects His Old Friend
11. Romance For Bassoon And Orchestra, Op. 62 - Halle
12. I. Adagio - Moderato - Heinrich Schiff
13. II. Lento - Allegro Molto - Heinrich Schiff
14. III. Adagio - Heinrich Schiff
15. IV. Allegro Ma Non Troppo - Heinrich Schiff
16. Smoking Cantata - Andrew Shore

Customer Reviews:

A very different and rewarding Elgar concerto.......2006-02-17

Here the German Heinrich Schiff is one of the few cellists to erase the memory of Jacqueline Du Pre in this work. He does it by not competing with her deeply soulful, big-boned tone; instead Schiff often soudns spiky and edgy, with fantastically fast skittering notes in the second movement. He finds a neurotic intensity in the Edwardian swell of the third movement. The finale is very alert and alive inside.

Schiff's avoidance of lushness helps this work, which so often sounds dated and rhetorical. He reveals what a masterpiece it is for modern ears. Mark Elder's accompaniment follows the cellist's strong expressive gestures, and the sonics are spectacular, which seems to be the norm for Halle recordings nowadays. The "filler" is actually longer than the concerto: the overlong tone poem, Falstaff, much beloved by Elgarians.

Average customer rating: Paul is Amazing Fantastic folk singer and songwriter, dripping with blues

Songs for Devon Sproule Paul Curreri Manufacturer: City Salvage Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Folk | Styles | Music Similar Items: Upstate Songs From Long Gones to Hawkmoth Keep Your Silver Shined ASIN: B00069IVWY Release Date: 2003-05-06

Tracks:

1. Greenville
2. Letting Us Be
3. Night Jet Trails
4. If Your Work Is Shouting
5. Tomorrow We'll Wake Again
6. Come Near to Me
7. The Last Year of the Red Breast
8. Louise
9. Fishbowl
10. It's a Little Room (And I Need a Little Room)
11. Beneath a Crozet Trestle Bridge
12. Long Gone Again
13. Tomorrow Night

Product Description

13 songs.

Customer Reviews:

Paul is Amazing.......2005-10-05

I saw Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule (I believe they are married now) play in Charlottesville in one of the best live acoustic shows I've ever seen. If you can get your hands on his 'The Spirit of the Staircase' CD, it's also amazing. 'Let You Be' #2, on Songs for Devon Sproule is one of my favorite songs of all time. I highly recommend anything he puts out. I have so much respect for artists who still write and play their own songs and Paul has mastered that art.

Fantastic folk singer and songwriter, dripping with blues.......2005-02-02

Paul Curreri's 'Songs for Devon Sproule' is a hidden gem guaranteed to impress even the strictest critic's ears and rotate heavily in your playlists. Hailing from Virginia, Curreri is now touring and jiving with the great Kelly Joe Phelps. His fingerpicking focuses more on the voicing than the perfection, evoking a more 'live' and gutsy sound. Same goes for his voice. But don't let your guard down, as he'll hit a cool, raspy and mellow high note that'll make your heart swell from it's subtle yet amazing power. Devon Sproule is his wife, by the way, and a demonstration is available in the beautiful lyrics of "Letting Us Be". An addictively fun and upbeat track is "Night Jet Trails". Another of my favorites is "Beneath a Crozet Trestle Bridge". At time of this writing, this is the only Curreri CD available through Amazon, but his album 'From Long Gones to Hawkmoth' is another fantastic, five-star release, and he also has a new album late 2004/early 2005, which is due in the mail to me any day now......trust me, you won't regret this purchase.

Average customer rating: Very good folk music that grows on you Meaningful Music Strong, wise, and real. And superb musicians to boot... Thrilled to have found this album on Amazon!

Live at the Freight and Salvage Rebecca Riots Manufacturer: Rebecca Riots ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Live Albums | Folk | Styles | Music General | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music ASIN: B00000J89J Release Date: 1999-07-27

Tracks:

1. Introduction
2. All There Is
3. Dumpster Diver
4. Landmines
5. Vicki
6. Shores of Guatemala
7. Chances
8. Machine
9. Cosmos
10. Listen to My Dreams
11. Theif
12. No Wings
13. Like the Rain
14. I Got a Heart

Customer Reviews:

Very good folk music that grows on you.......2000-03-01

My California cousin gave this to me for Christmas and instructed me to listen to it a few times before passing judgement. The first few times I listended I thought the music was good Indigo Girls type stuff. Then I found myself humming Chances. And thinking about Cosmos. And dancing to I got a Heart. I'm not going to say this will be your favorite CD of all time, but it will be one of your quiet pleasures. (Though I'm imagining the ladies of Rebecca Riots aren't all that quiet in concert) Uplifting, smart and wise, this CD will enrich your life. What more can you ask for for 14 bucks?

Meaningful Music.......1999-10-04

Not since the release of Indigo Girls' first album has a CD moved me to the point of compulsive listening. After seeing the Rebecca Riots performance at the Bumpershoot Festival in Seattle, which was uplifting, intimate and entertaining, I have become a fan. These performers know how to write music that tickles the soul.

Strong, wise, and real. And superb musicians to boot..........1999-08-31

The Rebecca Riots bring a gift of healing. Their music will open your eyes, your heart, and your mind. And empower you to move forward. I just love to listen over and over and over.

Thrilled to have found this album on Amazon!.......1999-08-24

I first heard Rebecca Riots in 1992 as a freshman in college UCSD. Some guy in my dorm was from the Bay Area and had their first album. For years I carried around a 3rd generation tape of that album, listening to the song Chances whenever I needed cheering up. I was sure I'd never be lucky enough to come across this great little folk band again outside of Berkeley... then their latest album made it onto Amazon! Its an excellent album - wise and witty in beautiful harmony. Plus its live - the way folk music is meant to be. If songs like All There Is and Chances don't make you feel good, nothing will. So, while you've probably never heard of them before, take a chance on this album. You won't regret it. And if you love this album, you can find their first 2 albums out there on the web.

Average customer rating: It's good, but not great. another masterpiece It has Kalimbas!!!

Salvage Another Fine Day Manufacturer: Climate Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | International | Styles | Music General | New Age | Styles | Music General | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music ASIN: B00004X0DJ Release Date: 2000-08-22

Tracks:

1. Scarborough Fair
2. Twisted Standards
3. Cutting Branches
4. Lost In Space
5. Two Kalimbas And A Synth
6. Urban Fox
7. In 5
8. Irish In China
9. Malcolm's Loop

Amazon.com

Salvage lives up to its title in many ways, since it sounds like a hodgepodge of ideas, sketches, and influences that producer and composer Tom Green has salvaged into an album. The second effort from Green, Salvage dials into an African-techno sound pioneered most recently by Afro Celt Sound System. Using the African kalimba or thumb piano as the basis for many pieces, Green sets up hypnotic, slo-mo tribal grooves. His work with both the Orb and Baka Beyond emerges, as well as the seminal influence of Brian Eno and Harold Budd. He borrows their ambient atmospheres on "Lost in Space" and brings jazz piano stylings to a funky groove called "Twisted Standards." Green creates some curious juxtapositions, like inserting the familiar "Scarborough Faire" into a trance groove on the opening track and making a traditional Shona piece sound like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Unfortunately, a lot of Salvage sounds like backgrounds looking for a theme, a pleasant assemblage of sonic bric-a-brac, with a destination that's diffuse. --John Diliberto

Customer Reviews:

It's good, but not great........2003-10-29

Okay okay... This album is quite a letdown, to be honest. It's got some great bits to it... Each song is beautiful, but they don't go anywhere...
The best track is easily Scarborough Fair or Malcom's Loop, but the problem is all the tracks on the CD sound exactly the same.
Lost in Space has some great pianowork, as does Urban Fox.
Twisted Standards and Cutting Branches are rich in rhythm but lack melody and both are too bright sounding.
Irish in China and In Five are both average and the whole album was well put together, it just needed some variation.
Salvage is a wonderful album, don't get me wrong, you should buy it if you're a fan of the sound pioneered by the Afro Celt Sound System, just pickup thier 1994 release first.. It's much better.

another masterpiece.......2001-08-16

This Is one of my favorite CD's of 2000 .. In fact Six degree's made most of my favorite CD's of 2000. I was shocked at how little people have heard of this album since its is so wonderful.

This album maintains a constant use of natural sounds making you almost forget that its electronic at all. Tom uses a wide variety of liuve instrument tation and carefull sampling to achieve this perfect blend. Along with his original organic electronic sounds, he creates something highy wonderful. I am constantly listening to this album the whole time I have it playing. This isn't wallapaper its something you feel compelled to focus on. Much like the subtle nature of Mile Davis' Kinda of blue, where even though everything is rather calm, you still pay full attention. I don't just reccomend this album, I belive its a must buy for any fan of world/electronic music.

It has Kalimbas!!!.......2000-08-31

OK. Imagine the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, still with the same sense of humor and musical talent, and then add kalimbas!! This is a great CD. It is not your ordinary music, as you can tell just by listening to the first tune, Scarborough Fair. This rendition is still true to the spirit of Simaon and Garfunkle (if you don't believe me play them, one after the other). Since the samples on the web are so short, go to the cut "two kalimbas and a synth" to get a feel for the inspired use of odd instrumental combinations on this CD. The Six Degrees label usually produces winners, and this is definitely one of them!! I highly recommend this CD.

Average customer rating:

Collateral Salvage Nocturnal Emissions Manufacturer: Soleilmoon Recordings ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music ASIN: B000HD1N1K Release Date: 2003-07-28

Tracks:

1. Jesus' Twin Brother
2. Burn, Bush, Burn
3. Groovin' With Mr. Slow
4. Daisycutter
5. Puchobongo
6. Pulsar
7. Going To The Edge
8. I See You're With Eeyore
9. Bunker Buster
10. Resistance Is Fertile
11. Listen, Little Man
12. Running Water
13. As If Vietnam Never Happened
14. Sag Alu
15. Lah De La De Saki Ya

Product Description

For his 25th CD as Nocturnal Emissions, Nigel Ayers has created a work that balances noise and vocal samples against a wild array of loops and rhythm tracks. It's a tantalizingly spicy cocktail that sounds nothing like an out-of-control hip-hop dump truck being driven backwards through an octogenarian's barn dance. "Collateral Salvage" is beat-oriented toe-tappin' music constructed from hundreds of different samples of indie guitar-pop, interspersed with fragments of song and surreal speech. Strong bass lines run throughout, and the rhythms are a blend of funk and exotic eastern promise. Subtle tonalities, acoustic guitar flavors, swingin' saxophones, flutes and horns are piled high over tabla and soaring vintage analogue synthesizers. Mbiras mix with driftwood marimbas, wicky-wicky guitars and pitch-shifted sitars in a swirling belly-dance dub sock-hop. "Collateral Salvage" was inspired by the sounds of modern Morocco. Late at night, lying in a bath, listening to the output of three different nightclubs, each with their own blend of local music mixed with international pop hits, all in a constant struggle for dominance, with water running in and out of the ears. The resourcefulness of human endeavor in the Third World and its contrast with the luxuries and carefree wastefulness of the developed world provided the foundation for the album. This is the music of resistance against the constant war being waged by the powerful elite in rich nations against the poor. When Bush says "you're either with us or you're against us" Ayers replies "There is no separation. Social divides are socially constructed. A forgotten branch of the avant-garde once suggested that art can direct thought along new lines and enable us to generate more positive patterns of social behavior."

Average customer rating:

My England: A Collection of Timeless English Concertos Manufacturer: Asv Living Era ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Arnold | Arnold, Malcolm | ( A ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Finzi, Gerald | ( F ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music All Works by Holst | Holst, Gustav | ( H ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Vaughan Williams, Ralph | ( V ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Concertinos | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music General | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | Composers | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music Clarinet | Reeds & Winds | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music Oboe | Reeds & Winds | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music Violin | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music Similar Items: The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 40 - Herz: Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5 Walter Piston: Symphony No. 4; Three New England Sketches; Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra The Yellow River Concerto Brahms: Works for Solo Piano ASIN: B0001JSS40 Release Date: 2004-09-21

Tracks:

1. 1. Allegro Vigoroso/Allegro Lirico - Emma Johnson
2. 2. Adagio - Emma Johnson
3. 3. Rondo/Allegro Giocoso - Emma Johnson
4. 1. Rondo Pastorale - Ruth Bolister
5. 2. Minuet & Musette - Ruth Bolister
6. 3. Finale (Scherzo) - Ruth Bolister
7. 1. Moderato - Kate Hill
8. 2. Adagio - Kate Hill
9. 3. Allegro - Kate Hill
10. 1. Allegro Molto - Jill Crowther
11. 2. Adagio - Jill Crowther
12. 3. Allegro Con Brio - Jill Crowther

Tracks:

1. 1. Allegro - Emma Johnson
2. 2. Andante Con Moto - Emma Johnson
3. 3. Allegro Con Fuoco - Emma Johnson
4. 1. Allegro Moderato - Emma Johnson
5. 2. Andante Con Moto Quasi Ma Piu Tranquillo - Emma Johnson
6. 3. Tempo 1/Allegro Moderato - Emma Johnson
7. Andante Sostenuto - Ian Scott
8. 1. Moderato - Graham Salvage
9. 2. Quasi Blues - Graham Salvage
10. 3. Giocoso - Graham Salvage

Tracks:

1. 1. Allegro Moderato - Ruth Bolster
2. 2. Andante Con Moto - Ruth Bolster
3. 3. Allegro Vivace - Ruth Bolster
4. 1. Allegro Moderato - Jennifer Stinton
5. 2. Lento - Jennifer Stinton
6. 3. Alla Gavotta - Jennifer Stinton
7. 4. Allegro Molto - Jennifer Stinton
8. 1. Preludio (Allegro Deciso) - The Fibonacci Sequence
9. 2. Andante Poco Doloroso - The Fibonacci Sequence
10. 3. Allegro Molto Ritmico - The Fibonacci Sequence
11. 4. Lento Sostenuto - The Fibonacci Sequence
12. 1. Largo Sostenuto/Allegro Molto/Largo Sostenuto - John Turner
13. 2. Scherzo (Presto E Precipitoso) - John Turner
14. 3. Elegy (Adagio E Sostenuto) - John Turner

Tracks:

1. 1. Allegro Assai - Christiane Edinger
2. 2. Adagio (Calma) - Christiane Edinger
3. 3. Allegro Con Brio - Christiane Edinger
4. Concerto For Saxophone And Orchestra 'On Hungerford Bridge' - John Harle
5. 1. Allegro Risoluto - David Owen Norris
6. 2. Presto - David Owen Norris
7. 3. Andante - David Owen Norris
8. 4. Allegro - David Owen Norris

Tracks:

1. 1. Allegro Vivace - Emma Johnson
2. 2. Lento - Emma Johnson
3. 3. (The Pre-Goodman Rag) Allegro Non Troppo - Emma Johnson
4. 1. Molto Moderato Ma Con Moto - Jill Crowther
5. 2. Lento Molto - Jill Crowther
6. 3. Allegro Molto E Scherzoso - Jill Crowther
7. 1. Allegro Poco Moderato - James Watson
8. 2. Lento Moderato - James Watson
9. 3. Vivace - James Watson
10. 1. Allegro Vivace - Graham Salvage
11. 2. Grave E Molto Sostenuto - Graham Salvage
12. 3. Con Spirito - Graham Salvage

Average customer rating: Understated, Overlooked, Beautiful

Midnight Salvage Dana Robinson Manufacturer: Alcazar ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Country | Styles | Music General | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music Contemporary | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Singer-Songwriters | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music General | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music Singer Songwriters | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music ASIN: B000000PWE Release Date: 1997-10-07

Tracks:

1. Sadie
2. Goodbye Mary Jane
3. Shady Grove
4. Midnight Salvage
5. Redpoll
6. Stalk Your Calling
7. Wishing Pool
8. Heaven
9. Edge Of The Woods
10. Sweet Dream
11. Lazy June

Customer Reviews:

Understated, Overlooked, Beautiful.......2003-11-26

I've owned this CD for years, and every time I come across it in my collection and plunk it in the player it's like rediscovering a long lost friend. Dana's guitar playing is rythmic, polished, and understated. The songs are sort of "modern traditional"--they sound like they've withstood the test of time and are a part of our folklore, though they are all from Dana's creation. Dana gives these songs life with a wonderfully raspy voice that provides a kind of intimacy to the delivery. Over the years this has become one of my favorite CDs. I've never understood why Dana Robinson isn't more of a household word--this CD is an overlooked gem.

Average customer rating: Good music for an unlikely instrument

English Bassoon Concertos Manufacturer: White Line ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B00005QITV Release Date: 2001-11-20

Tracks:

1. Fogg: Concerto in D: Allegro vivace
2. Fogg: Concerto in D: Grave e molto sostenuto
3. Fogg: Concerto in D: Con spirito
4. Addison: Concertino: Andante-Allegretto
5. Addison: Concertino: Andante-Moderato
6. Addison: Concertino: Larghetto
7. Addison: Concertino: Moderato
8. Hope: Concertino: Moderato
9. Hope: Concertino: Quasi blues
10. Hope: Concertino: Giocoso
11. Butterworth: Summer Music, Op. 77: Allegretto, pastorale
12. Butterworth: Summer Music, Op. 77: Nocturne (Lento)
13. Butterworth: Summer Music, Op. 77: Vivace-quasi presto

Customer Reviews:

Good music for an unlikely instrument.......2002-05-01

Here's a disc that isn't likely to jump out at you and say "I need to be bought." Concerti for bassoon are rather rare, especially if you throw out Vivaldi's efforts in the genre. Mozart and Weber's early efforts are about all that bassonist have to work with. The lowest of the woodwinds just isn't the [] of soloists imaginable. (In fact, it's hard to think of a less [] regular instrument!!)

That all said, this disc makes a good case for a reappraisal of the bassoon's solo possibilities, particularly given the colorful and soulful playing of Graham Savage. Not everything here is profound, but all four concerti are quality music.

Pride of place goes to Eric Fogg's D Major concerto of 1931. This is incredibly beautiful which digs a lot deeper than one would expect. Fogg eschews the idea of the basson as either a grumpy curmudgeon or a silly clown. Instead, he lets the instrument sing, particularly in the lamenting slow movement. This is a piece all bassoonists should know.

The second best piece here is Peter Hope's Concertino, written in 2000. It opens mysteriously with a melody very reminiscent of the score from "Lord of the Rings." In fact, this piece is redolent in memorable themes, from the bluesy slow movement to the bouncy finale. Hope keeps threatening to veer into Holywood kitsch or popular music, but he never quite slips into banality. Instead, he produces a piece that is a lot of fun.

The Addison and Butterworth pieces are somewhat less engaging but are certainly listenable and pleasant. In fact, there isn't a single harsh sound on this disk even though everything is clearly of the 20th century.

Also missing is much of the Vaughan Williams pastorale school that one might expect to find in this type of music. This is a bonus because 75+ minutes of pastorale musings could make one run to turn off the player.

Instead, I found this a quite charming and attractive disc. If the bassoon intrigues you as a soloist, give this mid-priced disc a try. I think you'll find that the grumpy curmudgeon of the orchestra is a more engaging solist than you might think.

Album Review:

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